Jeff
Duhé, a former award-winning reporter at Louisiana Public Broadcasting,
has come forward to tell Accuracy in Media that he was the secret
whistleblower who reported Beth Courtney, a member of the board of
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), to the Louisiana Board
of Ethics, which found her guilty of violating the law and fined her.
Duhé, who worked at Louisiana Public Broadcasting for 14 years, is
now publicly alleging a pattern of questionable conduct by Courtney,
and says that he has a tape-recording to prove it.

The
tape includes Courtney yelling and using profanity at Duhé. “If your
boss tells you to do something, you do it, and it’s not unethical,”
she screams. “You’re out of control.”

As
AIM has reported, in a decision handed down on January 12, Courtney
and her husband Bob Courtney, who runs a public relations and film
and video production company, were found guilty by the Louisiana Board
of Ethics of violating conflict of interest laws and ordered to pay
a $10,000 fine. One violation involved receiving payments from a private
company, which hired Bob Courtney’s firm, and did business with a
Louisiana public broadcasting entity that Beth Courtney ran. Under
Louisiana’s Code of Ethics, subcontractors are subject to the same
nepotism provisions as contractors with the state. Courtney and her
husband did not contest the findings.

The
state violations jeopardize her seat on the national CPB board. The
CPB Code of Ethics and Business Conduct says that “Each employee shall
act at all times with integrity and perform his or her duties in compliance
with all applicable Federal, state and local laws, and CPB policies
and procedures. Each employee shall discharge his or her duties in
an honest, candid, and thorough manner.”

Courtney
told AIM the state violations were “technical” and didn’t deserve
any “gigantic follow-up” from the press. She said she would not resign
from the CPB board.

Duhé
tells AIM, “The sordid details of her illegal activities pale in comparison
to her abusive management style. For decades, a pattern of vicious
employee derision has escalated in proportion to her getting away
with it. Profanity-filled screaming fits of red-faced intensity are
routine. Standing in the halls of the network’s flagship station in
Baton Rouge, she curses and stamps like a flapping duck, weaponizing
any arcane personal or family information she can call to mind to
bludgeon the staff victim into submission.”

Duhé
has won numerous journalist awards, including from the Society of
Professional Journalists. He also received a prestigious Emmy award.

Another
former employee of Louisiana Public Broadcasting has told AIM that
he, too, witnessed abusive treatment of employees by Courtney.

Duhé
told AIM that his final confrontation with Courtney came in 2004 when
he “refused to produce a story on a business I suspected was a client
of Bob’s.”

“I
tried to resist by staying quiet, ducking the fire,” he tells AIM.
“Then I heard ‘I command you…’ Yes, she actually speaks this way.
Just after I reported her unethical activities to the Governor’s Executive
Counsel, I was fired. A thorough, hate- and profanity-filled screaming
fit came first, of course. Anybody want to hear it? I’ve got it in
MP3 now. It’s 52-minutes long and includes the Courtney classic, ‘I
wrote the book on ethics!’ She also demanded, under direct threat
of termination, that I write a personal letter of apology, saying
I was wrong to speak of her behavior with the Governor’s Office. There
was no way on Earth I was going to pen that.”

Duhé
says that he was eventually fired “for refusing to deliver a story
which I suspected would serve” the Courtneys personally.

But
before she fired him, Duhé says that he compiled a list of 54 occasions
“on which I had surrendered to unethical pressures…” He says these
included:

·
“Airing, in News programming, a shortened version of a civil rights
documentary produced by Courtney’s husband as promotion for the work.
· “Producing a glowing review of a building’s restoration spearheaded
by Bob Courtney. · “Accepting, for statewide air, a feature story
on arbor enthusiasts promised to the group by their publicity chair,
Beth Courtney. · “Including, in Louisiana news, the testimony before
Congress of Public Television executives. Guess who testified? · “Producing
a favorable review of a children’s book whose author is a friend of
Beth Courtney. · “Saying nothing when Beth Courtney entered into a
contract to produce and air stories about the state’s cultural agency
which would highlight agency achievement. Beth Courtney’s daughter
is that Department’s attorney. · “Airing, in News programming, a promotional
version of a documentary on Jimmy Davis, produced and narrated by
Courtney’s husband. · “Producing a favorable review of a biography
as ordered. The book’s author is the sister-in-law of Beth Courtney.
· “Allowing, in News programming, a Beth Courtney interview with an
author promoting his autobiography. The book’s publisher is LPB. Beth
Courtney commandeered News programming to promote a book published
by Beth Courtney. This is one for the ethics books. · “Enduring a
screaming fit as punishment for airing a story which was not entirely
flattering to the state’s cultural agency. The daughter, again. ·
“Allowing promotional shorts to air, as part of News programming,
which advertised an LPB-produced state-history series. The segment
featured an interview with Beth Courtney as she praised her agency’s
product.”

As
allegedly instructed by Beth Courtney, Duhé says that interviews with
Bob Courtney were “knitted extensively” into a six-part documentary
on Louisiana history, together with historians such as Stephen Ambrose.

AIM
made numerous attempts to contact Courtney for a response to Duhé’s
allegations, leaving messages with her office at Louisiana Public
Broadcasting and the press department at the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. None of the messages was returned.

However,
Clay Fourrier, executive producer at Louisiana Public Broadcasting,
defended Duhe’s firing, saying, “we are the supervisors and he seemed
to get to the point where he just didn’t want to do anything except
what he wanted to do, and did not seem to want to think that we had
any right to tell him what to do.” Regarding the tape-recorded meeting,
Fourrier would only say that Courtney was clearly “upset.”

Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts!

Enter Your E-Mail Address:

As
for his role as a whistleblower, Duhé says that he is proud to have
reported Courtney to the state ethics board and to the state Legislative
Auditor, in another investigation that is still ongoing. “Now we have
firm proof of the veracity of just some of what I and others are willing
to say,” he adds.

Cliff Kincaid, a veteran journalist and media
critic, Cliff concentrated in journalism and communications at the University
of Toledo, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Cliff has written or co-authored nine books on
media and cultural affairs and foreign policy issues.

Cliff has appeared on Hannity & Colmes, The O’Reilly
Factor, Crossfire and has been published in the Washington Post, Washington
Times, Chronicles, Human Events and Insight.
Web Site: www.AIM.org
E-Mail: kincaid@comcast.net